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Posted on March 27, 2013 in DUI Case
In my line of work, I deal with police officers from all over the Valley on a daily basis. To some people, this may seem interesting, and I am often asked the question whether police officers lie. Unfortunately, the answer is yes. After years of practicing criminal law, I have become jaded by how prevalent dishonesty is within the law enforcement community.As a child of the 1980’s, I was raised to believe that cops were honest people, always to be trusted in times of need, and if I ever needed help I should always seek one out. It is a sad concept to me that I won’t be giving the same advice to my daughter as she grows up. In three separate court hearings this week alone, the Rosenstein Law Group has been able to prove that certain police officers were not telling the truth under oath. The conundrum of this situation is that while this deceit bodes badly for society as a whole, this dishonesty was actually favorable here for our clients; we forcefully argued that catching officers in alie under oath discredits the entire investigation. The sad reality is that far more often we are unable to prove the officers were lying, because there is no objective evidence contradicting these falsehoods, just our client’s word.
One solution to this problem would be the installation of dash-cam videos in police cars, or audio recordings of the entire investigation. Unfortunately, in the Phoenix metro area, very few of these technology devices actually are put to use for law enforcement purposes. Officers have very strong opposition to the required use of these devices, as it would bemuch easier to prove the officers were lying, or at the very least, heavily exaggerating. In trial, this impartial and objective evidence could be used to contradict the officer’s testimony about what he saw, heard, and did. It is no coincidence that these audio and video technologies have existed since the 1970’s and are less expensive thanbrand new tasers worn by most cops, yet are not found in the vehicles of, or used by, any of the major Valley police departments.
Now, don’t get me wrong, are all cops liars? Absolutely not. I have numerous police officer friends and value the work that they do on a daily basis. However, that does not change the hard truth that police officers do lie to us, and the Court, on a regular basis. As a result it is always best to hire experiencedattorneys to uncover the truth.